Things to Keep in Mind When Writing ENG 114 Prof. K. Horowitz

Index Objectives Introduction Topic Sentence Developmental Sentence Concluding Sentence Coherence Examples of Connectors Example #1 - Coherence Unity Example #2 - Unity

Objectives This module is designed to educate students of the importance of keeping their thoughts straight when writing, primarily by maintaining coherence and unity. By the end of the module, students should have a better idea of how to organize their thoughts when writing paragraphs and essays, as well as use connectors to increase their flow.

Introduction All too often, students want to empty their heads onto paper without organizing them first. This leads to paragraphs and essays that are jumbled and hard to understand. By ensuring that your work is coherent and unified, you are making the reader do as little work as possible, leaving more time to actually enjoy what is being read.

Topic Sentence A topic sentence usually comes at the beginning of a paragraph; that is, it is usually the first sentence in a formal academic paragraph (Sometimes this is not true, but as you practice writing with this online lesson site, please keep to this rule unless you are instructed otherwise). Not only is a topic sentence the first sentence of a paragraph, but, more importantly, it is the most general sentence in a paragraph. 

Developmental Sentence The second and third sentences are called developmental sentences.  They are called “developmental" because they “develop," or explain, the idea expressed in the topic sentence.  Of course, paragraphs in English often have more than two supporting ideas. The paragraph above is actually a very short paragraph. At minimum, you should have at least five to seven sentences in your paragraph.

Concluding Sentence In formal paragraphs you will sometimes see a sentence at the end of the paragraph which summarizes the information that has been presented. This is the concluding sentence. You can think of a concluding sentence as a sort of topic sentence in reverse.

Coherence Coherence refers to a certain characteristic or aspect of writing. Literally, the word means "to stick together." Coherence in writing means that all the ideas in a paragraph flow smoothly from one sentence to the next sentence. With coherence, the reader has an easy time understanding the ideas that you wish to express. Connectors are words that we use to add coherence to our writing. They tie ideas together.

Some Examples of Connectors * For example, * For instance, * One example of (this) is * First, Second, Third, etc. * On the one hand, * On the other hand, * However, * ..., but... * Also

Example #1 – Determine if the following paragraph is coherent or not. My hometown is famous for several amazing natural features. First, it is noted for the Wheaton River, which is very wide and beautiful. On either side of this river, which is 175 feet wide, are many willow trees which have long branches that can move gracefully in the wind. In autumn the leaves of these trees fall and cover the riverbanks like golden snow. Second, on the other side of the town is Wheaton Hill, which is unusual because it is very steep.  Even though it is steep, climbing this hill is not dangerous, because there are some firm rocks along the sides that can be used as stairs.  There are no trees around this hill, so it stands clearly against the sky and can be seen from many miles away.The third amazing feature is the Big Old Tree. This tree stands two hundred feet tall and is probably about six hundred years old. These three landmarks are truly amazing and make my hometown a famous place. Coherent Incoherent

Remember the words in italics font Remember the words in italics font? Do you see how they help guide the reader? For example, consider the words, First, Second, and The third amazing feature. We can call these words major connectors. Major connectors help organize the main parts of your paragraph. This paragraph has three main parts: (1) a part about the Wheaton River, (2) a part about Wheaton Hill, and (3) a part about the Big Old Tree. Another way of saying this is that this paragraph has three main points which are indicated by the major connectors. Using such major connectors is an important way of providing coherence in a paragraph.

What about the other words in italics, such as those appearing in the phrases "these trees" and "this hill"? We can call these minor connectors. Minor connectors provide coherence to a paragraph by connecting sentences within each of the main parts of your paragraph. That is, when you write about your main points, you can use minor connectors to link your details to each main point.

Unity Unity is a very important characteristic of good paragraph writing. Paragraph unity means that one paragraph is about ONLY ONE main topic. That is, all the sentences -- the topic, supporting sentences, the detail sentences, and (sometimes) the concluding sentence -- are all telling the reader about ONE main topic. If your paragraph contains a sentence or some sentences that are NOT related to the main topic, then we say that the paragraph "lacks unity," or that the sentence is "off-topic."

Example #2 – Determine if the following paragraph is unified or not.  Each of the Russian manned space exploration projects had specific major goals. For example, the Vostok project was designed to test whether or not human beings could survive and function in outer space. For another example, the Voshkhod project was intended to find out whether people could work in the weightless environment of space. One Voshkhod cosmonaut experimented with weightlessness by taking a "spacewalk." That is, he floated in a spacesuit outside his Voshkhod spacecraft, connected to it by a tether. The cosmonaut to do this was Alexei Leonov. Several weeks later, Leonov's spacewalk was followed by that of U.S. astronaut Ed White. Finally, the Soyuz project, with three cosmonauts, had goals of testing spacecraft and spaceflight skills so that people could fly long missions in Earth orbit. Unified Not Unified

This paragraph is generally good, but the sentence, Several weeks later, Leonov's spacewalk was followed by that of U.S. astronaut Ed White, does not have anything to do with the major goals of the various Russian space projects. That is, it is an "off-topic" sentence, so we can say that the paragraph somewhat lacks unity. In order to improve the paragraph, we should omit this sentence, even though it is historically accurate.

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